VR Ute

[brindo]

We've been looking after a friends place 30 kms out of town. So was a good opportunity to get some hours up. Only about 10kms is dirt.
This way on the way home only a few kms out of town. Veered off the bitumen and there was a huge shoulder with a pothole on the edge. Hit that at 90 km/hr. Inside edge of the rim is badly dinted.
If nothing else twas a lesson in how to change a tyre.

[vlad01]

Yeah that could have ended badly, I know what these cars are like on loose dirt/gravel, and shoulders are one of the worst areas for this loose crap, the back end of the car wants to lead the front at the drop of a hat. Like driving on a field of marbles! It's actually far easier and predicable to drive on black ice in these cars than on gravel/unsealed roads, I think it's because they are so light for their footprint.

[brindo]

Just had a better look in the light of day. Back wheel is damaged as well. Put some air in it and instantly started leaking.

One thing I hopefully have drummed into her is that not to use the cruise control in the rain or on the dirt. Being a ute that is light in the rear end, its all too easy to loose control.

[brindo]

Back of the Wheel.png (498.72 KiB) Viewed 6973 times

The back wheel is a bit better, and while the tyre looks ok it doesn’t hold air.
I was in a world of hurt trying to source another set of rims. When you’re not looking for them they seem to be everywhere. When you need them, there seems to be nothing out there so just parked the ute up. The date for the driving test is fast approaching and this ute is the only manual we own. Thankfully a cousin of mine answered the distress call and she has sourced a set of VR SS wheels for us. So yes these are a 15” wheel, but given the lesson we have just learnt with low profile tyres and the roads out here it’s a better choice for a learner driver than the 17” Senator wheels were. Tyres are reasonable but only 205s. No centre caps, and they seem hard to procure.

New Wheels.png (828.87 KiB) Viewed 6973 times

I also managed to get hold a set of 2nd hand LS injectors. Whacked them in as they were but 2 were stuck. So ran them through the sonocleaner and they cleaned up fine. As the sonoclean is too big, I just fill it with water, then sit the injectors in a glass beaker full of brakleen in the middle and it still seems to work fine. Fitted the injectors back in and it’s a different car. As the clips no longer fit, and I was worried about the injectors popping out of the rail, I ran some sump gasket washers against the manifold to space up the injectors and keep them in position. Its back on to batch fire and the tuning seems to make a lot more sense.

New Injectors.png (598.03 KiB) Viewed 6973 times

[brindo]

Been lamenting the exhaust situation, and nothing was going to happen anytime soon. Then my nephews managed to grab a 2nd hand 3” Manta catback for us. As much as I don’t like the Manta mufflers, their systems are really well built and they fit really well. Once I had the ute on the stands it was 20 minutes max to throw the exhaust on. Still has the original old cat, but that’s a job for another day. It’s not a twin cat system like I wanted, so still running the Y piece, but for the price of it couldn’t pass it up. No twin system either so the drivers side exhaust hanger will be an ornament for the time being.

Clearly with a single muffler its now way too loud, but seat of the pants is that it’s picked up a bit of power. Has a slight bit of a drone but the exhaust note sounds a lot better than the previous system. I also think it’s almost a given most driving instructors would fail a learner instantly if they rocked up to a test with an exhaust this loud. So will look at getting a 3 inch chambered resonator for the tailpipe in the hope that it will knock the edge of it.

Bit off topic, but this is the FB site for the local drag club https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15XftjbYMG/. Easter drags meeting is their biggest event for the year and is usually a great turn out.
Don’t think there’s any video footage of it, but possibly one of the funniest things in a long time was a character entered into the open bikes class on a Honda CT110 postie bike with ape hangers, racing with a full 15 second head start against all the other bikes in the category. Was great for a laugh.

[vlad01]

Looks like it its decent fit. All other exhausts I've used all need mods to make them fit better or not fall of with the crappy mounts and what not.

Mufflers are one of those things that I wish there was a way to know what they sound like before fitting. Many sound terrible and all in different ways so you can't put a sound down to a common design, it's all in the subtle details.

And for these cars being so tight for space for mufflers, it's hard to even find configurations that would fit. I have kept an eye out for the front and rear shape and size in a 3.5". Found a few in the US that would fit the rear, none in that offset oval for the front like in your pic.

May have to just have them hand fabricated, but a thing for another day, just nice to know options well ahead of time.

[brindo]

Said daughter wanted to make a Youtube clip of this ute before the resonator went in to make it a bit quieter. I am a complete IT illiterate, so she has done the whole thing start to finish.
Anyway this is the first Youtube clip she has made. Hopefully she won’t cop too much grief over this so please be kind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrxn4ToCe5o

The tyres are only the 205s that came with the rims and it struggles badly with them. It’s useless in the wet, worse on the dirt. Hoping the chambered resonator I have for it will knock the noise level down a heap.

[VTXU8]

Geez, that sound beautiful. Love that note. I say leave the resonator off.

[vlad01]

The resonator on my cars at least got rid of that loud and annoying bark that happens at a certain rpm, similar sound to the old thong slapper.

The exhaust guy I used years ago to do my restro mod VP said if you want a single muffler and don't want the bark, to move the muffler as close to the tail pipe as possible. The tail pipe being long after a muffler is what seems to cause that bark. Hard to do in a sedan or wagon, but on the ute I think there is more room?

I started with dual 2.25 with a muffler each in the stock location, barked really bad despite sounding nice at idle and else where, he then merged it before the diff with the dual mufflers left alone (was for diff clearance, dual 2.25 didn't fit) and then a medium sized resonator at the fuel tank, sounded great still and the bark went away completely.


That all said, seems this ute doesn't suffer from that bark at all, sounds really good!

[brindo]

It will be a shame to quieten it down, but it’s just too loud. I think rocking up to a license test in this would be an instant fail regardless of how good or bad you drove.
I have two nieces and a nephew who passed their license test in my old VS ute when it had the supercharged 5.0 in it, but that was fairly quiet compared to this.
In a small town you can only get away with a loud exhaust on diesel Hiluxes, V8 Landcruisers and Harleys.

I'll also need to chase up some better rear tyres. Squeezing 235s in on the rear of a ute or wagon can be a challenge so thinking will have to settle for 225s. The extra height in the profile won't be a bad thing either.